First Born

Baseball is over.  I have no more excuses to ignore my blog.  What better day to dust it off than my favorite boy's birthday? 

August 1, 2000...A day I'll remember forever.  It was a once in a lifetime kind of feeling, a feeling so strong, it felt like my heart was going to burst right out of my chest.  I never believed in love at first sight until that moment.  It was the day my heart felt like it would forever live outside my body.

We struggled at first.  Neither of us had a clue what we were doing.  But we figured it out.

The years really have flown by.  First smile, first words, first steps, ....

First haircut...some things haven't changed at all.



Yep, you are still the same little boy I've loved since the moment I felt you in my belly. Same little boy who loves balls...

Loves his momma...

Still a little bit silly at times...

Still loves baseball more now than ever....

Still loves his sister, even though he won't admit it...

But you are turning into a man before my very eyes.  It makes me proud and sad at the same time. 

Eleven years of moments, gone by in a flash.  I'm so proud of the man you are becoming and so happy that I got lucky enough to be your mom.



Happy Birthday Reece!

The Blizzard

We just experienced our first ever blizzard!  It wasn't so bad where we are now, but where we used to live got it really bad.  We got somewhere between 6-10 in of snow on top of 1/2 inch of ice.  This is our 3rd day we've been stuck in the house.  We took advantage of a little sunshine yesterday and went outside for approximately 4 minutes.  This is the only member of our household who absolutely loved everything about the day:

It's hard to tell in the picture, but he was running full speed, with a huge smile on his face!  He should have been a sled dog. 

This started a fun game of catch me if you can.

 Can you guess who won?



Meanwhile my baby girl was doing this:

There are monster icicles on our house, ( how sad is it that I had to ask the 10 yr old how to spell icicle, and he knew without hesititation)

I got a few down and handed them to the 7 year old.

Hmmm.  Walrus with giant teeth or kid with a really bad snotty nose? 

To be seven again...

Tragedy and Triumph

We lost our chicken coop last night to a fire.  It was after dark when we got home from Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and a neighbor came over to tell us that the fire department had been there to put a fire out.  I guess the heat lamp that was keeping them warm somehow caught something on fire.  Maybe it got knocked down and lit the straw.  We don't know.  All I know was that my little girl, the lover of all animals and keeper and protector of all her beloved chickens, was devastated.  We could see the charred remains of one of the little guys in the pile of rubble.  There were four in the coop.  We assumed that all of them got trapped and burned.  This is what was left of our little coop. 

So we went to bed, but didn't get much sleep.  We were visited during the night by a heartbroken little girl so much that we gave in and let her sleep between her momma and daddy.   Then right after I pushed the snooze button on the 6am alarm clock, I heard something outside.  I was still half asleep and didn't believe my ears at first.  Then I heard it again....a cock-a-doodle-do!  We all jumped up, got our coats and boots on over our pajamas and found this outside our door:

I have no idea how these guys escaped and survived.  I guess the fire department got here in time to save them.  We were so happy and started looking for other survivers. 

That's when I heard a rustle on the other side of the yard.  We ran over there and found this sweet girl, my kids' favorite little hen, the momma to the rest, Martha.

I've never seen a happier little girl.

Anybody have a chicken coop for sale?

Don't you love happy endings?